Silica-coated Au/Ag nanorods with tunable surface plasmon bands for nanoplasmonics with single particles

We present the synthesis and analysis of silica-coated Au/Ag bimetallic nanorods with controlled surface plasmon bands. Depending on the thickness of Ag shell deposited on the Au nanorod surface, there is a blue-shift on the longitudinal surface plasmon band of Au nanorods, which can be expressed by an approximate formula derived from the absorption profile of light in Ag films using finite difference time domain simulations. The subsequent coating of silica shell not only enhances the stability of the Au/Ag bimetallic nanorods but also provides a mesoporous host for optically active species. Minute red-shifts of the longitudinal resonance mode, induced by stepwise increased silica shell volumes, are shown. Application as carrier for fluorescent rhodamine B molecules is demonstrated by photoluminescence analysis. On the single-particle level, dark field microscopy of Au/Ag-silica nanorods was finally employed. This introduces a route towards revealing the relation between structure, shape, and optical (plasmonic) properties of complex composite metal particles as well as fabrication strategies for nanoassemblies of tailored structures in the field of nanoplasmonics.     

Antiferroelectric alignment and mechanical director rotation in a hydrogen-bonded chiral SmC* A elastomer

A new type of chiral smectic elastomer based on poly[4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy)benzoic acid] is discussed. The layer structure and the molecular tilt stabilized by hydrogen bonding between side groups are identified by X-ray measurements. Well aligned and optically clear monodomain samples with smectic layers in the film plane are obtained by uniaxial stretching and then frozen-in by additional gamma-radiation crosslinking. In this monodomain state, two opposite orientations of director tilt are distributed through the sample thickness and alternate between neighbouring layers in a zigzag fashion. This structure of the stress-aligned chiral smectic C elastomer is similar to that of antiferroelectric liquid crystals of the smectic C^* _A type. Further mechanical stretching in the layer plane induces a gradual c-director reorientation along the new stress axis, when a threshold deformation ~ 20% is exceeded. The (reversible) transition proceeds as a director azimuthal rotation around the smectic C cone, with the layers essentially undistorted and the tilt angle of the side mesogenic groups preserved.     

Development of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for the Herbicide Propanil

Although the extensively used postemergence herbicide propanil itself is of low acute toxicity in mammals, it raises environmental concerns due to its effect on aquatic organisms and other adverse impacts. Therefore, in order to obtain a rapid analytical method for this pesticide, an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed. Antibodies obtained against a conjugate of 3,4-dichloroaniline coupled to succinylated proteins were tested in hapten-homologous and heterologous indirect ELISA formats using various N -(dichlorophenyl)-succinamic acid derivatives conjugated to carrier proteins as coating antigens. Titers in ELISA were found to be significantly affected by the type and quantity of coating antigen. One of the optimized systems using N -(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-succinamic acid and N -(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-succinamic acid conjugated to ovalbumin allowed serum dilution of 1 : 10,000 and IC 50 values of 2.2 and 2.7 ng/mL for propanil, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) of the immunoassays is 0.2 ng/mL. Other optimized ELISA systems based on different dichloroaniline-based coating antigens also offered similar sensitivities. The ELISA systems appeared to tolerate methanol and ethanol upto 5% concentration. For confirmatory purposes, the ELISA protocol was compared with a highly sensitive gas chromatographic method coupled with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MS). Spiked propanil content was detected both by ELISA and GC-MS in methanolic rice extract. Detection sensitivities of the two analytical systems appeared to closely correlate with each other in the range of 10-90 ng/mL (0.02-0.18 µg/g), indicating the utility of the immunoanalytical method in detecting propanil content in rice, the main commodity propanil is being applied on.     

The Effect of Substituents on the Reactivity of the Double Bond of D-Glycals

Abstract

A study was made concerning the effect of substituants at 0-3, 0-4 and 0-6 of d-galactal and d-glucal (1, 5-anhydro-2-deoxy-d-lyxo- and -d-arabino-hex-1-enitol, respectively) on the double bond reactivity in the chloroazide addition reaction. Results from the quantum chemical calculations of the model structures (ab initio) and also of the whole cyclic molecules in the half-chair conformation (MINDO-3) together with the reaction indices of olefin carbon atoms are presented. These studies snow that (1) the double bond reactivity and the chloroazide addition mechanism are only affected by the substituent at 0-3; (2) the influence of the acyl group is only due to its inductive effect; (3) no interaction between the acyl and the olefin fragments through space was detected. Three 0-acetyl-di-0-benzyl-d-galactals were synthesized.     

The oscillating dark energy: future singularity and coincidence problem

We consider the oscillating dark energy with periodic equation of state in two equivalent formulations: ideal fluid or scalar–tensor theory. It is shown that such dark energy suggests the natural way for the unification of early-time inflation with late-time acceleration. We demonstrate how it describes the transition from deceleration to acceleration or from non-phantom to phantom era and how it solves the coincidence problem. The occurrence of finite-time future singularity for the oscillating (phantom) universe is also investigated.     

On partitioning of hypergraphs

We study edge-isoperimetric problems (EIP) for hypergraphs and extend some technique in this area from graphs to hypergraphs. In particular, we establish some new results on a relationship between the EIP and some extremal poset problems, and apply them to obtain an exact solution of the EIP for certain hypergraph families. We also show how to solve the EIP on hypergraphs in some cases when the link to posets does not work. Another outcome of our results is a new series of hypergraphs admitting nested solutions in the EIP.     

Embedding of hyperbolic groups into products of binary trees

We show that every Gromov hyperbolic group Γ admits a quasi-isometric embedding into the product of n+1 binary trees, where n=dim∂_∞Γ is the topological dimension of the boundary at infinity of Γ.     

Synthesis and polymerization of first‐generation dendritic methacrylate macromonomers

First‐generation dendritic macromonomers with a methacryloyl end group on one side, long alkyl chains on the other side, and a biuret system with two urethane groups in the core have been synthesized. The synthesis comprises three steps with hexamethylene diisocyanate uretdione as the starting material. The branching points were introduced via biuret groups and the prepared macromonomers were polymerized by free and controlled radical polymerization. Depending on the reaction conditions linear dendronized polymers as well as branched dendronized polymers and microgels with long alkyl chains were obtained. Scanning force microscopy was used to visualize high molecular weight molecules spincoated on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 614–628, 2007